Lemaître–Vallarta theory of the cosmic-ray latitude effect
Teoría del efecto de latitud de los rayos cósmicos (Lemaître–Vallarta)
- Date
- 1933 · confidence high
- Place
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States
- Credited to
- Manuel Sandoval Vallarta and Georges Lemaître
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Calculation of charged-particle trajectories in the Earth's magnetic field that explained why cosmic-ray intensity varies with latitude and azimuth. It showed that the primary radiation is mostly positively charged.
Vallarta, a Mexican at MIT, worked with Lemaître in 1932-1933; the latitude effect had been measured by Compton and the east–west asymmetry by Johnson and others.
What it led to
- Interpretation of the east–west cosmic-ray effect
- Theory of geomagnetic cutoff rigidity
- Cosmic-ray physics in Mexico